Jason Radcliffe had been tooling around with industrial furniture-making when a friend who owned a furniture shop volunteered Mr. Radcliffe to design a stainless steel glass-top table for an interior design client.

The customer loved his product, but it would be four more years before Mr. Radcliffe's designs received the type of reception that convinced him that he could make a living off his work.

His minimalistic stainless-steel table and other items generated about a dozen orders at the 2009 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, at which he was the only Cleveland participant.

“Now I have a nice base of architects and designers who are clients” based in New York, along with pieces displayed at two Manhattan stores, said Mr. Radcliffe, owner of Forty Four Steel.

His momentum continued that year when he co-founded the f*sho, a contemporary furniture show that each year showcases Cleveland's designers and makers.

“(The business) has just kept going from there,” he said.

His year-over-year sales have doubled since then; in 2009, he brought in about $22,000. This year, Mr. Radcliffe is on pace to cross the six-figure mark and is planning to transition the business from his Rocky River home into a new space.

Closer to home, Mr. Radcliffe's work can be found primarily at top-notch restaurants, with La Strada's reclaimed wood railing and Lola's stools and bathroom markers among the customized creations.

Mr. Radcliffe now journeys to New York's annual furniture fair with a couple other local fabricators, whose displays are branded with a Cleveland logo designed to emphasize the city's place in the larger design community.

“Jason really has his finger on the pulse of the bigger picture,” said Freddy Hill, owner of Cleveland-based Bomb Factory Furniture. “He's not so much concerned about how much we make on a certain piece, but how we can collaborate and build up the Cleveland design community.”

Messrs. Hill and Radcliffe frequently collaborate on projects such as wood tables and cabinets, accented with steel shelves or bases.